People

Asli Demirgüç-Kunt

Director of Research,
Development Research Group

Asli Demirgüç-Kunt is the Director of Research in the World Bank. After joining the Bank in 1989 as a Young Economist, she has held different positions, including Director of Development Policy, Chief Economist of Financial and Private Sector Development... See More +Asli Demirgüç-Kunt is the Director of Research in the World Bank. After joining the Bank in 1989 as a Young Economist, she has held different positions, including Director of Development Policy, Chief Economist of Financial and Private Sector Development Network, and Senior Research Manager, doing research and advising on financial sector and private sector development issues. She is the lead author of World Bank Policy Research Report 2007, Finance for All? Policies and Pitfalls in Expanding Access. She has also created the World Bank’s Global Financial Development Report and directed the issues on Rethinking the Role of the State in Finance (2013), and Financial Inclusion (2014).

The author of over 100 publications, Ms. Demirgüç-Kunt has published widely in academic journals. Her research has focused on the links between financial development and firm performance and economic development. Banking crises, financial regulation, access to financial services including SME finance are among her areas of research. Prior to coming to the Bank, she was an Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from the Ohio State University.

This paper provides a comprehensive, global database of deposit insurance arrangements as of 2013. The authors extend their earlier dataset by including recent adopters of deposit insurance and information on the use of government guarantees on banks' assets and liabilities, including during the recent global financial crisis. They also create a Safety Net Index capturing the generosity of the deposit insurance scheme and government guarantees on banks' balance sheets.

Global Financial Development Report 2014 is the second in a new World Bank series, following the inaugural 2013 Global Financial Development Report. The report presents new data and research, drawing on them to contribute to the policy discussion. It highlights novel evidence that financial inclusion can reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity.
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As the first public database of indicators that consistently measure people’s use of financial products across economies and over time, the Global Findex database fills a major gap in the financial inclusion data landscape.
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This database of indicators of financial development and structure across countries and over time includes a range of indicators (31 indicators in total), starting from 1960, that measure the size, activity, and efficiency of financial intermediaries and markets.
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